A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Scotch Snap

by John Muir Wood

SCOTCH SNAP or CATCH is the name given to the reverse of the ordinary dotted note which has a short note after it—in the snap the short note comes first and is followed by the long one. It is a characteristic of the slow Strathspey reel rather than of Scotish vocal music, though as Burns and others wrote songs to some of these dance-tunes, it is not infrequently found in connection with words. 'Green grow the rashes,' 'Roy's wife,' 'Whistle o'er the lave o't,' and above all, Hook's excellent imitation of the Scotish style, 'Within a mile of Edinburgh,' contain examples of the snap. It was in great favour with many of the Italian composers of last century, for Dr. Burney—who seems to have invented the name—says in his account of the Italian Opera in London, in 1748, that there was at this time too much of the 'Scots catch or cutting short of the first of two notes in a melody.' He blames Cocchi, Perez and Jomelli 'all three masters concerned in the opera Vologeso' for being lavish of the snap. An example of it will be found in the Musette of Handel's Organ Concerto in G minor (1739); he also uses it occasionally in his vocal music.

[ J. M. W. ]